A Recycling Project

Yesterday my friend Ann and I went to Goodwill looking for some sweaters to recycle into a felted bag. Above is what I scored. A wool Abercrombie stripped number (men's large) and a funky purse with some interesting wooden tops with leather handles. Hopefully I can reuse the wooden parts, the handles and lining.

First step is to felt the sweater. Hopefully that happens today. I have another hand knit bag that needs felting (a little Noro dumpling bag) so I might as well felt two bags with one wash. 

In the meantime, however, I want to do a little research on the recycled sweater bag. I feel like I need a little inspiration....

First I looked on Flickr. There is a "Recycled Sweater Pool" that is full of stuff:

Some things I never thought of, like mittens and scarves. This pool actually gives me ideas for Christmas gifts next year :) I also like the idea of a blanket made from bits and pieces of recycled felted items. Of course, that would be a much larger project...not for a first timer...

I also looked on Ravelry for ideas. Several projects I like (not bag related) is from user Adair who made a pair of slippers using a template from Marthastewart.com. There are also groups for hand bags and lots of ideas in the shared projects area in each group. I like the idea of copying the shapes of the finished bags but creating the bag using recycled sweaters and sewing it together. One group I like is the Bags, Bags, Bags group. 

Lots of ideas to chose from here....now to start felting!